On Mar 2, 10:41*am, wrote:
I have a Dewalt 12V cordless drill that I have been using and it has
always worked fine for what I do.

However, recently the battery pack is lasting shorter and shorter (I
have two) and I think I would need to get new ones or have them
reconditioned.

But one thing I noticed is that with the battery lasting a shorter
time, it seems to be losing the torque as well, in other words, I am
getting trouble with putting in 2-1/2" long screw (or extracting them)
when I did not have any trouble before. *It seems that even with a
short live battery fully charged, the torque is reduced, or may be
it's just me hallucinating after breathing in too much fiber glass
insulation.

The other thing I found is that the old studs that are in my 35 year
old house, they are A LOT harder than the new studs I get at Home
Depot. *When I sister a piece of new 2x4 to an old 2x4, the screw cuts
through the new wood like butter and when it hits the old wood, it
slows down. *Same thing with cutting, I can notch new wood with a saw
much easier than the old wood. *It seems the old wood is almost as
hard if not harder than today's PT wood.

MC

The old wood might be douglas fir, well dried. Before you chuck the
battery make sure it's just not a "charge memory" problem. When
people re-charge batteries without letting them go completely dead
first, over time, the charge becomes increasingly "shallow", its
called "charge memory" (or something like that). Completely drain the
old battery so it wont spin the drill at all with no load, let it
cool, then give it a full deep charge. If that doesn't work then its
the battery.